The Best One Yet - 🐶 “DOGE.gov” — Elon’s Dep’t of Government Efficiency. Spotify’s power-pausers. Bounce’s luggage storage.

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, November 14th. Then today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Big drop coming tomorrow. Big news, right, Jack? That's right, Yetis. We're announcing that we have an announcement tomorrow. Should we just tell him, you want to just tell them, Jack? Sounds like we're telling the Yetis. Why don't you take the honors? All right, yeties, Jack and I, we're dropping our holiday merch tomorrow on the show when you can you. get on here. Black Friday, never heard of it. Pink Friday, we're into it. More to come tomorrow. In the meantime, three fantastic stories for the show. What do we got on the podcast? For our first story, Donald Trump has officially created Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency, and he's put Elon Musk in charge. Because our government spends $6.4 trillion every year, so Jack and I will tell you where all of it goes. For our second story, it's Spotify. Spotify just enjoyed its most profitable

Starting point is 00:00:58 quarter ever and stock is at an all-time high. And it's all thanks to pausers or non-possers. Actually, both. We'll explain. We'll explain pausers and non-posser. And our third and final story is a company called Bounce. Bounce just raised big money to become the Airbnb of suitcases. Yeties, what if Jack and I told you you could leave your luggage in a locker at Starbucks? But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories. Really curious about the luggage, Jack. Congratulations to the three new inductees to the U.S. Toy Hall of Fame. Ah, the U.S. Toy Hall of Fame located up in lovely Rochester, New York.

Starting point is 00:01:37 Past inductees include cabbage patch kids, Ooh. Scrabble. Ah! And the ball. Simply the ball. Probably chosen by the museum curator's children. But the newest inductees are Transformers and a playing card game called Phase 10.

Starting point is 00:01:52 Balloon got snubbed. Again. But the most important new toy in the Hall of Fame is my life. Little Pony. My Little Pony, my little pony is finally in the Toy Hall of Fame. Because My Little Pony brings in a billion dollars in revenue every year for its parent company, Hasbro. In fact, My Little Pony has a $70 million movie and an entire series on Netflix, not too shabby. But the reason it's such a big deal that they're in the Hall of Fame? Why, Jack? It took My Little Pony seven tries to get there. Sit down, stand up, and get back on the saddle because for seven

Starting point is 00:02:25 straight years, My Little Pony was a finalist for the Hall of Fame. Eighth times a charm, apparently. My Little Pony finally persevered. But Jack, could you sprinkle a little context onto that My Little Pony, please? If you never had a My Little Pony, your sister probably did. Katie had a couple of them. Jack, pastel horses, rainbow manes, hooves made of sparkles. I knew you grew up with three brothers, but trust me on this one. They smell like friendship and magic. You nailed it.

Starting point is 00:02:50 In fact, Yeties, Jack and I discovered there is also a huge fan base of dudes who love My Little Pony. They're called My Little Bronies apparently. Bronies, yeah. So, congrats to all the bronies and the ponies out there. My Little Pony didn't give up, and you know what, besties, neither should you. So if you're facing a challenge today, just remember that pony. Because it took the pony seven tries to win big. My Little Pony is really our little pony. Yes, it is Jack. Let's in our three stories, baby. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm.

Starting point is 00:03:24 They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.

Starting point is 00:03:42 Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, Donald Trump has officially. formed a Department of Government Efficiency, aka Doge, and it's led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramoswamy. So we'll tell you what this department is and crucially what it isn't. But first, HeroStat and a little bit of trivia. Jack, how many department's agencies and sub-agency are in the United States government? Nick, there are 441.

Starting point is 00:04:23 Honestly, favorite, it's between NASA and the U.S. Post Office. Mine's the Department of the Interior. It's so mysterious. I love those post office shorts, though. I'm a sucker for the shorts, Jack. In the meantime, Yetis, President-elect Trump issued a press release on Tuesday, outlining plans to make our federal government in D.C.

Starting point is 00:04:41 A whole bunch smaller. In Trump's press release, he said this. We want a smaller government with more efficiency and less bureaucracy. So Donald Trump is establishing the Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge. Which is Elon's favorite crypto. And he's tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramoswamy to co-ozo. lead this new department known as Doge. Which is Elon's favorite acronym. Now besties, that is what this

Starting point is 00:05:06 department is. But it leads to the big question, what isn't this department? Well, actually, Nick, this department isn't a department at all. Good fact check there, Jack. The department of government efficiency is not part of the government. It's outside of government. So it's more like a private consultancy, actually. Yeah, I like the way you described it. It's actually just like McKinsey or Bain, Elon and Vivek are going to be writing reports and recommendations and findings like any consultancy. Which the government can implement or ignore, just like with a consultant. Or more likely, they're going to do social media posts on X all with the goal of making the government more efficient. There's still a whole lot of questions that need to be answered, but Doge is a new government

Starting point is 00:05:47 department that's not actually part of the government. But here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. There is some interesting precedent here, isn't there, Jack? Let's just look at big tech's year of efficiency that just finished up. Two years ago, Elon Musk bought Twitter and immediately cut two-thirds of the staff. Twitter has way fewer content moderators now, but to everyone's surprise, it still functions pretty decent. And here's the interesting thing. Those Twitter cuts by Elon, they actually inspired the whole tech industry to get a whole lot leaner too. Amazon, Google, meta, each eliminated over 10,000 jobs at their tech companies.

Starting point is 00:06:25 Zuck branded the whole thing, the year of efficiency. It's like the entire tech industry took a whole bunch of OZMPIC. And now Trump wants the government taking OZMPIC, and he wants Elon Musk to distribute that OZMPIC dose.

Starting point is 00:06:37 Exactly. He wants Elon to turn that trend against the U.S. government with Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency. Three million federal government workers are probably nervous about their jobs right now. But cutting jobs isn't really the measure of success here. cutting waste is the measure of success. True. If this eliminates unnecessary, duplicative, or outdated

Starting point is 00:06:57 things that our government does, that would be a win. Maybe you can't expense Taco Tuesdays at the Treasury for the whole office anymore, Jack. If this eliminates good regulation that protects people, that'd be a loss. But either way, here is the big question. Will Doge, this brand new crypto-e-inspired government agency that's not really part of the government, actually save us money? So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Doge? Government isn't the same as Twitter. Now, Yeti's, Jack has a public policy degree. I basically dropped out as I was about to start one.

Starting point is 00:07:31 So we've been curious about this story. We know that the U.S. federal government spends $6.4 trillion a year on a whole bunch of things. So if Elon and this department are going to cut spending, that's a whole lot of potential spending to cut. So Jack, toss on that math kini and let's go. Let's dive into the data, man. What are the government spending numbers? Well, 61% of federal government spending is actually for mandatory programs like Social Security and Medicare. And 13% of our government spending is actually on interest, which we pay on our big national debt.

Starting point is 00:08:03 What about the remaining 26%? Half of it goes to national defense. The military, our soldiers, our nukes, our tanks. So add it all up yet, he said, 87% of our federal spending, it's basically untouchable. Social Security, Medicare, Medicare, interest on debt, and the military. Those aren't things you can easily cut. No, and that's 87% of our government's budget. So Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramoswamy, and this new Department of Government

Starting point is 00:08:28 Efficiency, they're going to have to get creative if they want to find ways to save money. Now, is there a waste in our government? Yeah, absolutely. There are a whole bunch of ways our government could improve efficiency. I'd love to re-up my driver's license with a online form instead of showing up and waiting a line. I just spent a half a day at the DMV. This could have been an email. But when you look at the numbers like Nick and I just did, finding cuttable efficiencies might be a lot harder than you think. Because the government isn't the same as Twitter. For our second story, Spotify stock is up over 400% in the last two years and it just jumped again. Because Spotify is

Starting point is 00:09:10 immune to the pauser problem. The pauser problem. Uh, hey Yeties, call up Sabrina Carpenter because Spotify just drank up all her espresso. You love Sabrina Carpenter. You know, that sounded inappropriate, Jack, but I think we should just continue on. I am a fan. Yet these Spotify stock jumped 11% yesterday. It just closed up to a $100 billion market cap.

Starting point is 00:09:36 Don't stop believing, Jack. And what sounded so good to Wall Street? The profits, Nick. The profits. It was the profits. A record high gross profit margin over at Spotify of 31%. Because remember, Spotify's core business model is to take your subscription and send 70% of it to the musicians.

Starting point is 00:09:55 70% of their revenue go to the artist so it's pretty hard to be profitable if you're Spotify. So with the revenue challenge, this year, Spotify focused on costs. Sadly, Spotify cut one-third of their workforce, but that efficiency, it drove the record profitability. And the record stock price. Spotify stock is up 400% in the last two years. Sprinkle on some contacts to that huge number, please, Jack. That growth is. is twice as good as Netflix over the same period, three times as good as Amazon, and eight times better than the NASDAQ tech index. Sorry, Jack, I got one more.

Starting point is 00:10:28 To quote Maroon 5, Spotify got moves like McJagger. I've got another Sabrina Carpenter one, but I'll save it. I expect a couple more before the end of the show. Yet he's Wall Street also loved Spotify's tease that AI-generated music and podcasts were coming. I wasn't actually aware of that detail, Jack. You had to tell me that before the show, before the pod. But yet he's the main reason, in particular, that's... Spotify is popping off right now, it's pausers. There's a new trend in the media industry,

Starting point is 00:10:54 Yetis, known as pausers. And Jack, how would you define the pauser right now? People who temporarily pause their subscription when they're not watching anything. Get this, Yetis. According to the Wall Street Journal, 34% of us pause a streaming subscription and then rejoin that same subscription later in the year. So you subscribe to Netflix for a month, unsubscribe after your show's over, and then resubscribe when a new Netflix show drops that you want to watch. What you're saying, Jack, is that you get Hulu to watch the bear, and then you switch to Netflix to watch Shitt's Creek, and then you're back to Hulu for Shogun. Exactly. If a third of us streamers are pausing our subscriptions, that's a sizable trunk of streaming revenue that's gone. I mean, full

Starting point is 00:11:32 disclosure, this is Nick, and I've paused HBO Max since Succession and Curb Your Enthusiasm. I'm always on the fence about whether to pause Peacock. They got the office, which is like a nice, warm, fuzzy blanket for me. I'll answer for you, Jack. Just pause peacock. So yet he's Jack and I I'm curious, what about Spotify? What is Spotify going to do in an era when so many people are pausers? Mick, I can't pause parks and recreation. Just pause the peacock, Jack. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Spotify? Spotify is immune to the pauser problem of streaming. Yeah, it is, according to the Wall Street Journal, Spotify users don't cancel and resubscribe.

Starting point is 00:12:12 What we're saying is that Spotify users are not pausers. The Wall Street Journal interviewed multiple people, but they didn't have to, because they could have interviewed us. We would never pause our Spotify subscriptions. And why is that the case? Well, it's because Spotify is the one and only app that people subscribe to for music. It's a one and only industry. Whereas in video streaming, it's not a one and

Starting point is 00:12:33 only industry. The typical video streamer subscribes to four different video apps on average. So you can afford to pause your Amazon Prime video subscription because you have three other streamers you're going to watch stuff on. But you can't pause your Pandora, your Spotify, or your Apple Music

Starting point is 00:12:48 subscription because it's your one and only music app. So Wall Street, it's finally rewarding Spotify for an advantage that they've got over video streaming. Spotify is immune to the posit problem of streaming. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Bounce, just raised VC money to store your luggage. Because you can apply the Airbnb model to anything, anything. Even a suitcase locker. Now, yet it is funny thing as Jack and I were researching this story. We decided that to explain what this startup does, we're going to have to use their name as a verb. So let's use bounce as a verb.

Starting point is 00:13:34 I got you, Jack. Here we go, here we go, here we go. I land at 8 a.m., but I can't get into my buddy Timmy's house until 4 p.m., so I'm going to bounce my suitcase and enjoy the city. You don't want to schlep your 50-pound away roller suitcase through central. Park, so you're going to bounce it for those eight awkward hours until you can get into your place. A bounce. Their business is short-term storage for travelers with luggage. Basically, they've set up a suitcase storage unit in a Starbucks that you can book for like

Starting point is 00:14:03 four bucks for the whole day. They've scaled the closet. What they'll do is they will hold your luggage before a hotel check-in will take your luggage. Or they'll hold your luggage after you've checked out, but you don't fly to the airport until this evening. Or they'll hold any package you got because you're busy at work and then you can grab it when you're out of work. Based on that simple value proposition holding her stuff for a few hours, revenue has grown 20x in the last

Starting point is 00:14:28 two years. So they just raised their series B $19 million. Now yet he is Jack and I jumped in T-boy style to the pitch deck and we noticed that Bounce used the same exact business model as Airbnb, but they're applying it to your suitcase.

Starting point is 00:14:44 Bounce is a luggage and storage company that doesn't own any luggage or storage units. It's a platform just like Airbnb. So what do they do instead, Jack? Instead, Bounce has gotten 13,000 storage partners to sign up because those storage partners do have space and they're trying to make a little money off it. And then Bounce gives most of the money it collects from customers with luggage to the owners of the storage space who are taken in the luggage. Just like Airbnb, which gives most of the money they make to the host of the property. You need space for your Ramoa while you're exploring Toronto, you stick in the

Starting point is 00:15:18 in a bounce locker over in a bodega and that bodega gets paid. But here's the wild part. Bounce's newest customer line is hotels. It's hotels. Instead of storing your bag for free, like all the hotels have always done, they may now start charging you thanks to Bounce. It's true. Ritz, they dedicate space to bounce lockers, so you'll have to pay like 20 bucks for an early bag check fee, just like the airplanes are charging a bag check fee. So Jack, we got an early checking fee. We got a late check-out. fee and now we're getting a bag check fee. This is not good news. Just like hotel breakfasts, hotel suitcase storage is now going to become an extra charge. As annoying as that is, Jack,

Starting point is 00:15:57 I think every time I'm holding my suitcase, I would pay someone else to take my suitcase. You got those two wheelers. That's the problem. Two wheelers like herniating three of my discs, Jack. Four revolving wheels. I know. I've lectured you on this before. I'm just saying Christmas is coming up, Jack. I'm just going to leave it there. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Bound? The physical world is taking ideas from the digital world. Yeti's for decades. The digital world needed physical space to save our digital information.

Starting point is 00:16:29 You needed a floppy disk or an external hard drive until we got Google Drive and ICloud. Well, Bounce proves that that same phenomenon can happen for physical savings too. In fact, Bouts refers to themselves as cloud storage for the physical world. Yeah, it's basically cloud storage. Like, you can store your stuff in the physical cloud with bounce. By physical cloud, we're referring to the convenient constellation of lockers and closets that Bounce has set up across the city. And now we know you're thinking, Basties, yes, storage units do exist. They are a thing that is an industry.

Starting point is 00:17:04 Just like external hard drives do exist. But they're not as convenient as using the cloud. So convenient cloud physical storage? It proves that the physical world is taking ideas from the digital world. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? The Department of Government Efficiency is happening. Elon's job is to save money and cut waste like he did at Twitter. But Jack and I jumped into the numbers,

Starting point is 00:17:30 and the government is not the same thing as Twitter. For our second story, Spotify stock has quintupled in two years. The company is now worth nearly $100 billion. Because Spotify is immune to the pauser problem. And our third and final story is a startup called Bounce. They rent out lockers, closets, and storage. space, Airbnb style for your suitcase. Because the physical world is taking ideas from the digital world. Cloud storage, but physical. Someone, take my Ramoa. But yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's

Starting point is 00:18:04 what else you need to know today. First, it's been a while since we covered an IPO man, but a big IPO may be on the way. One of Europe's biggest private companies, Clarna, the Buy Now Pay Later app, just confidentially filed to go public. Besties, it's been a quiet, year for IPOs, but markets are up and that could mean the return of big IPOs in the first quarter. And second, Wonder, the futuristic food company whose CEO we interviewed live in New York at a live show, just acquired Grubhub. Get this, though, Yeties. Grubhub, the delivery app, was once worth $7 billion. But Wonder just acquired Grubhub for just $650 million. Ipso facto Grubhub lost 91% of its value in just three years, and now it's owned by rival Wonder.

Starting point is 00:18:50 And finally, one of the biggest gas station chains in America is changing its name. That's right. The Midwestern gas chain known as Come and Go is officially rebranding. No More Come and Go. Come and Go hasn't announced their new name, but it won't be Come and Go. Come and Go came and went. Yes, it did. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by our creative director, Rachel Hauer, whose birthday is this weekend, by the way, and she happens to celebrate National Pickle Day. Did you know that Mason jars were invented specifically for pickles?

Starting point is 00:19:24 Jack, take us back to 1858 and set the scene for us, please. John Mason developed the Mason jar in 1858 because he was pickling pickles pickles, and he needed a jar that could withstand the heat necessary for the pickling process. He basically needed a thicker type of jar for pickling. It was made of soda lime glass, and these jars proved to be simple. so popular that even after their patent expired, manufacturers continued naming them the Mason Jar. And you know those like two part tops that Mason Jars have? Yeah, Jack, because I hate the two part tops.

Starting point is 00:19:55 The seal, it's perfect for pickling. But it's annoying for Nick's finger. You have to use a knife. If you have to use a knife, it's not a great device. I feel like I've been complaining a lot on this pod. I think a lot of people will hear me though. I don't know about that. I feel hurt.

Starting point is 00:20:08 I wouldn't count on that, man. I feel hurt. Yeties, you look fantastic. today. And by the way, yesterday, Jack and I did a story about Apple Notes, and what did we decide to do, Jack? We decided to post our Apple Notes. Yeah, we took some screenshots of our most intimate Apple Notes, and we're putting them in our newsletter, which you'll get this Saturday. We pulled the Taylor's app. We screenshoted our notes to post on the ground. So Yeti, subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You get it every Saturday, and this edition is going to have some of our Apple Notes in there, like our ideas that we brainstorm every day.

Starting point is 00:20:40 And Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. A shout out to Amanda Whittem, a legendary Yeti who's just living her best life over in Boston, just outside Boston. We just got to tell her she's doing together with Amanda. She's doing great. And happy 32nd wedding anniversary to Dan and Paula Hauer in lovely Grafton, Wisconsin. Not too shabby.

Starting point is 00:21:05 And Anika is turning 16 years old down in Bermuda, and she's always asking her best. He's H-Y-H-T-B-O-I. That's how you grow the show. Happy 17th birthday to Jailene Sanchez in Katie, Texas, who turned 17 on the 17. So early birthday, but same birthday as my mom, and McKenna Breckenridge down in Atlanta, Georgia is a triplet probably celebrating three birthdays today along with them. And happy birthday to Brian Burner in Harrison, New York. I'm sorry that Nick and I aren't Zach Bryan, but we hope this shoutout suffices.

Starting point is 00:21:37 I think together we're one Zach Brian Jack. And Tyler Brown down in Tampa, Florida is celebrating the best birthday yet. Favorite phrase, not possible. Not possible. And a happy birthday to legendary NBA, Kudrat, from the Great Country of India. Apparently, Kudraught wishes Taylor Swift could have given them a birthday shoutout, and T-Boy was the next best option. But you know what?

Starting point is 00:22:00 We'll take it. I'm okay being second to Zach Bryan and Taylor Swift, but together we're one Sabrina Carpenter. This is Jack. I own stock in Netflix and Amazon, and Nick and I both own stock in Airbnb, Spotify, and Apple.

The Best One Yet - 🐶 “DOGE.gov” — Elon’s Dep’t of Government Efficiency. Spotify’s power-pausers. Bounce’s luggage storage.

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